(3) My motivation

To join the yoga retreat, I had to ask for recommendation letters and even write essays about my motivation to do this (this was harder than an MBA application:-). The process helped me understand better why I am doing this. Basically, I would divide the question in two subquestions:

Why this?

(1) I started doing bikram yoga 2 years ago and, since the beginning I fell in love with it. This represents a great opportunity to get to know it better

(2) I have always practiced sports that somehow were bad for my body and I got injured pretty frequently (rugby, karate, squash, ski). With Bikram yoga, not only I have fun doing it, but also my body gets healthier, stronger and injury-free.

(3) I have always been very focused on my professional life. For once, I am taking time for me in order to get healthier, fitter (and tanner 😉 and surrounded by people with a complete different background to mine.

(4) Last but not least, after a life of being in sausage fest environments (male-only high school, engineering school, consulting, MBA program), this is the first time I am going to be in a place with many more women than men (gigiri gigiri goo!)

Why now?

(1) Why not now? Ok, the market is going stalemate and the US economy is about to enter in recession. This is maybe not the best timing to take a leave and go to Acapulco to do yoga. However, in my defense, I made the decision before the market went bananas (the US stock market crashed just after I asked for the sabbatical at work – coincidence or correlation?;-)

(2) In the professional side, as I progress in my career, it was going to be tougher and tougher to take a break to do this. So the timing was ideal and I am fortunate to work in a firm that allows me to do this

(3) In the personal side, I am currently single, without attachments/responsibilities and with the savings to afford this so what else do I need?